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Florida Geographer

College

Science

Department

Geosciences

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It is common to hear people claim that Florida’s most significant topographic features are ant hills; and in some parts of the state, this is no doubt true. But it is also true that Florida has several areas of somewhat higher elevation. With apologies to central Florida’s Mount Dora (elev. 184 feet above sea level), Florida has no mountains. Many geographers are familiar with the elongated Lake Wales Ridge, running between the appropriately named Highlands County in south central Florida (near Lake Placid) up the spine of the peninsula to Lake County, just west of big Lake Apopka. The northern ridge’s Sugarloaf Mountain (elev. 312 feet) is peninsular Florida’s highest “peak”; the view up Sugarloaf Mountain Road from County Road 561 looks like a ski slope! Moreover, anybody who has driven on Interstate Highway 10 past the state’s capital is familiar with the up and down of the Tallahassee Hills geomorphic province, and still others know that the state’s highest point is Panhandle Florida’s Britton Hill: all of 345 feet above sea level in northern Walton County, near the state line with Alabama. Indeed, Florida is loaded with places of modest elevation, but for my money, one of this state’s most impressive places—and my favorite Florida place—is an oddly named peak on the Brooksville Ridge: Chinsegut (pronounced chin-SEE-gut) Hill.

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